Inventory Planning Blog

Valogix Advanced Inventory Planning for SAP Business One Since 2004

Posted on Wed, Mar 01,2023@11:00 AM

Celebrating 19 years of our partnership with SAP and SAP Business One.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, SAP Business One, Forecasting Inventory, Valogix

Valogix Advanced Inventory Planning and Optimization for NetSuite

Posted on Wed, Feb 01,2023@10:07 AM

As your business grows and gains in complexity, you may need to explore how advanced inventory planning and optimization capabilities can take your business to the next level. Valogix, a global award-winning partner of NetSuite. We offer a specialized multi-stage planning engine that more effectively plans inventories and compliments NetSuite.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, NetSuite, Demand Planning, Valogix, Inventory Planning Solutions, NetSuite Demand Planning

Supply Chains Quake as Stock Market Jitters Continue

Posted on Thu, Jan 05,2023@10:15 AM

It is a new year and still old issues abound as well as new ones. In these challenging times, balancing near term inventory resilience with longer-term objectives is an on-going process. You read a lot about reducing costs, buying less, increasing productivity, improving cash flow and more. It is important to keep inventory objectives balanced and in perspective. Yes, times are starting to be more stable in certain areas, but you need to improve your competitive advantage.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, advanced inventory planning solutions, Supply Chain, Valogix

Supply Chain in the Cloud Recap

Posted on Mon, Dec 05,2022@11:48 AM

Customers will always demand more of suppliers to provide affordable products at the exact moment they want them. How can you effectively insure you have what your customers need when they need it? Supply Chain Management (SCM) is front and center of every business across the globe.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, in the Cloud, forecasting, Valogix, supply chain planning, customer service

Valogix Stocking Quantity and How It Compares to Min, Max, and Safety Stock

Posted on Tue, Jan 07,2020@06:00 AM

As the New Year begins, today’s challenging business climate is forcing managers to look for simple, yet effective ways to reduce waste and improve productivity to increase profitability and service. Finished goods, production materials and service parts inventory planning are prime candidates. With thousands of items to manage, sometimes at multiple locations, the lack of scientific automated tools has made the job almost impossible leaving companies with too many of the wrong items and not enough of the critical ones. The result is unnecessary inventory expense, while suffering service-limiting stock-outs.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, Valogix, warehouse management, supply chain planning

Key to Successfully Using Advanced Inventory Planning Solutions

Posted on Tue, Nov 19,2013@10:00 AM

Ease of Use is the Key to Successfully Using Advanced Inventory Planning Solutions

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, Valogix, Spreadsheets

Reports and Spreadsheets Have a Place in Inventory Planning

Posted on Tue, Nov 05,2013@10:00 AM

But not for primary forecasting and replenishment planning

Reports and spreadsheets should be used to provide a basic level of information. However, many companies and planners use reports & spreadsheets to completely manage their inventory. To understand the use of these tools on effectiveness and efficiency in inventory planning let’s explore each one independently.

Reports
Many ERP and accounting systems have many standard reports that provide useful information. Usually, however, a company will create or build custom reports either in-house or through their 3rd party IT provider (Value Added Reseller – VAR). OK, so this may help because it provides a level of detail that a company or planner feels is necessary to better manage the inventory.

Assume your outside IT firm builds the report. It costs $5,000 to develop. Let’s also assume it is refreshed, updated, each day. Now what? This is static data and yes it is current but it just sits there and provides no efficiency for the planner. The planner must review and decide what the data suggests and what to do with the data.

But the real cost is much higher than the cost to develop the report. Every report, like spreadsheets must be maintained. Much like a car, the purchase price is just the beginning. Hours of a planner’s time are spent pouring over the results to make decisions. You need to count those hours as an associated cost. So, if a planner is paid say $45,000 per year, plus taxes and benefits the total annual cost is over $50,000. If 35% of a planner’s time is spent reviewing just the reports to manage the inventory, then the first year cost is $5,000 + $17,500 = $22,500. That is some expensive report. Are you getting your money’s worth? You still may not be done.

Most people who have reports will export the data from the report into a spreadsheet so they can better manipulate the data. Here is where the fun comes in.

Spreadsheets
The data from the report is now in the spreadsheet that you spent countless hours creating. The formulas in the cells calculate the numbers you need to evaluate your inventory and plan out the replenishments required.

The dangers inherent in spreadsheets are:
1.    Lack of Control
2.    Errors from:

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Tags: cloud, replenishment planning, forecasting, reports, Valogix, Spreadsheets

Inventory Planning Feast or Famine

Posted on Mon, May 13,2013@10:00 AM

The vast majority of companies that own an inventory invariably use spreadsheets to control, manage and report. The types of companies vary from manufacturing, to wholesale distribution, to retail, to aftermarket services, to maintenance and repair operations. And this is true geographically and for companies from the very small to the largest. So why the fascination with spreadsheets?

I most cases, companies already own the software as part of a suite or as already installed on the computer they purchased. They are relatively low cost and have an abundance of features that make them attractive. It is also a case of “you don’t know what you don’t know”. Meaning, people are unaware of the availability of easy to use affordable, automated inventory planning software.

The dangers inherent in spreadsheets are:
Lack of Control
Errors from:

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Tags: Inventory Planning, cloud, inventory optimization, SaaS, Valogix, Spreadsheets

Cloud Inventory Planning Has Many Advantages

Posted on Mon, May 06,2013@10:00 AM

How does optimizing your inventory planning impact your savings?

Advanced inventory planning and optimization software in the cloud not only automates the entire planning process, it dramatically increases the positive cash flow of a company. By smartly reducing inventory investment, reducing stockouts, decreasing expedited shipping costs, and reducing planning time all contribute to more available cash. Add to that increased sales and productivity and the gains will also lead to an improved competitive advantage.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, SaaS, in the Cloud, Valogix

Greener Inventory Planning & Optimization

Posted on Mon, Apr 29,2013@10:00 AM

Greener Inventory Planning & Optimization

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Tags: Inventory Planning, cloud, inventory optimization, SaaS, optimization, Valogix

Inventory Planning for Complex Environments

Posted on Mon, Apr 22,2013@10:00 AM

Complex Environment Creates Inventory Challenges

Inventory management has become more challenging in today’s complex and competitive business environment. Yet many companies are still maintaining inventories manually, and  performing complicated computations using spreadsheets and point solutions. Keeping track of reorder points can become an overwhelming task as businesses grow. And standard spreadsheets offer little help in driving down costs and improving revenues because they are time consuming and frequently contain multiple errors. Ray Panko, University of Hawaii compiled data from numerous studies that indicates up to 90% of spreadsheets contain significant errors.

Where is the money hiding?
It is common to find excess and obsolete stock representing thirty-sixty percent of inventory and to find that five-forty percent of the time customer demands cannot be met (based on Valogix’ experience). At worst, companies lose sales; at best, they must ship items at a premium in order to fulfill orders, further driving down the profit margins.

There is good news on the (inventory planning) horizon
Automated planning tools are designed to remove complexity and improve inventory mix. They dramatically reduce the amount of time required to properly plan inventory. By automatically forecasting, replenishing and optimizing, companies can manage inventory more efficiently and meet the demands of customers and suppliers at lower costs for a powerful competitive edge.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, Valogix, Spreadsheets, inventory management, Inventory Planning Solutions

Service Management Software - Part 2

Posted on Mon, Apr 15,2013@09:57 AM

Multi-location planning adds complexity.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, Demand Planning, service management software, Valogix

Service Management Software Part 1

Posted on Mon, Apr 08,2013@09:58 AM

Service Parts Planning Concepts

Service or spare parts inventory management is a prime candidate for advanced inventory planning, i.e. service management software.  With many parts to manage and a lack of power tools, most companies with parts inventories have too many of the wrong parts.  The result is unnecessary inventory expense, while still suffering service-limiting stock-outs.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, Demand Planning, service management software, Valogix

Inventory Planning - Section 179 Tax Benefits for 2012/2013 NEW!

Posted on Mon, Apr 01,2013@09:00 AM

Section 179 at a glance - New for 2013 & 2012

•    2013 and 2012 Deduction Limit = $500,000
This is good on new and used equipment, as well as off-the-shelf software.

•    2013 and 2012 Limit on equipment purchases = $2,000,000
This is the maximum amount that can be spent on equipment before the Section 179 Deduction available to your company begins to be reduced.

•    Bonus Depreciation = 50%
This is taken after the $2 million limit in capital equipment purchases is reached. Note: Bonus Depreciation is available for new equipment only. Bonus Depreciation can also be taken by businesses that will have net operating losses in 2013.

The above is an overall, "simplified" view of the Section 179 Deduction for 2013. For more details on limits and qualifying equipment, as well as Section 179 Qualified Financing, please read this entire website carefully.

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, tax incentives, Valogix

New Advanced Inventory Planning – Generate Positive Cash Flow

Posted on Mon, Mar 25,2013@07:56 PM

The Business Problem

Until recently, Small and Mid-size Enterprises (SME) did not have affordable, easy to use software tools to help them effectively manage and balance their inventory investment. Software solutions that forecast, plan and optimize an inventory are found in widespread acceptance in large enterprise companies but these solutions can cost between hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions and are generally not affordable by SMEs.

In most cases, spreadsheets are the common tool in use! They are time-consuming to build and maintain, are usually static data repositories, and according to a study by a major consulting firm over 90% of them contain significant errors.

For organizations that carry an inventory, like manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, that investment is often their largest asset.  The cost of carrying excess and obsolete stock, as well as not having sufficient saleable inventory to meet demand is enormously high.  It is common to find excess and obsolete stock representing 30% - 60% of inventory and to find that 5% - 40% of the time, customer demand cannot be met. The latter often results in expediting vendor orders at a premium cost that cannot be passed through (based on Valogix’s research and experience).

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Tags: Inventory Planning, inventory optimization, Demand Planning, Valogix